Enemies of France - ALN and Viet-Minh

I finished off these figures at the end of May.  Four are painted as ALN fellaghas for the Algerian War and one is a Viet-Minh - I'm sure you can guess which.  Apologies for the photos I just couldn't seem to get them right.  


They are actually US Marine Raiders Command from Battlezone Miniatures, Sgt Major Miniatures sculpts.  I picked up this pack and some German Panzer-Grenadiers from Steve at Salute.  Whether in person or over email Steve's service is second to none.  Top bloke.  

The US Marine Raiders range has proved invaluable and I've used all of the packs in my ALN force.  Those figures in this range that are sculpted as Filipinos with obvious Asian features or clothing I've finished as Viet-Minh for my First Indo-China War project. 

As no one makes any specific figures for the  ALN (or for the Algerian War at all come to that) I've had to really look into things and improvise throughout this project.  I think that's one of the reasons I've liked it so much.  Nothing's been spoon fed to me, it's not a well documented conflict in the English language and is still very contentious in France.  


When I started wargaming there was a fraction of the wargames products and reference material available that there is now and of course there was no Internet.  Research was about going to libraries and bookshops and really searching for information.  Things are so much easier now and I make full use of every source I can.  Just the ranges of figures now available is staggering.  However, when everything is all packaged and there’s little thought or research required to build your forces, I do wonder if it isn’t removing some of the pleasure of it all.  

This is probably the last ALN I'll do for awhile.  I may add a mortar team at some stage but for the minute I have enough figures for platoon sized games and enough to generate reinforcements for Ambush Alley.

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